The car's beginning to annoy me...

I fixed a similar leak a while back with a new oil cap rubber gasket.

But the leak has returned and recently got worse - appeared to be around lower middle two of the 8 rocker cover bolts. Oil pressure gauge is showing over 3 bar at 2000rpm with warm engine so perhaps not too bad.

Got a brand new FAI cork gasket and fitted it. Old gasket was fairly hard, but no splits. No leak at idle. Did a 15 mile journey - slight oil smell when I braked in a queue - patch of oil on the floor in the car park by lunchtime. Traces of oil around the lower cover bolts. Tightened it up all up some more as I had fitted it while cold. Wiped up around the bolts. Drove home. Put a tray under the car - still signs of oil leaking in the morning.

It could be a new leak I suppose - but I can't see where from.

The only odd thing is the FAI cork gasket, does not have those pairs of little metal studs by the holes like the Elring gasket which I think prevent you from splitting the cork.

Should I whack some blue Hylomar on the cork gasket?

I'm about due to perform an oil change at just over 8,000 miles,, but seems pointless when it's obviously losing quite a bit.

hold a straight edge on the rocker cover ...these dont need to be much more than finger tight

Placing the cam box cover on a flat surface is probably the easiest way of checking it for distortion.

It might be a good idea to give the engine a clean down, this would make any new leaks more obvious.

You shouldn't really need any sealant on the gasket, but providing that the joint face on the cylinder head is perfectly clean, you can use something like 'Evostick' or 'Bostic' to glue the gasket to the cam box cover - doing this not only forms a good seal but providing that you DON'T also glue it to the cylinder head, it means that you can remove the cover at a later date and put it back without using a new gasket.

If you do do this, spread a coat of the glue on both the gasket and on the cover, allow it to dry for about 15 minutes and then bring the two parts together BUT make sure that the gasket is properly aligned with the cover before they come into contact - this stuff grabs instantly.

Regards.

Have you tried soaking/putting grease on the gasket beforehand?

I had a similar problem with a sump gasket, the cork gasket did not do the job alone, i had to use sealant.

I used sealant on both, just on the trouble spots on the rocker cover really, eg the sides. I used final systems sealant and has worked perfectly

Thanks for the answers. Didn't want to glue the now distorted gasket to the cover.

Rocker cover looks flat against a table top edge... around all the bolt holes it is slightly indented.

Even so they all touch flat surface at the same point and looks like cork will fill the gap between them.

I've put some Victor Reinz "reinzosil" sealant on the cork face that mates to the head and refitted.

Letting it cure.

Also, the left front stud was slightly unscrewed, but I think that happened while taking off the cover again.

If not - because of its unthreaded saddle section - that might have meant I was not tightening the front left down enough.

The reinzosil sealant and making sure that left front stud was fully home appears to have fixed the leak.

I have a catch can with not much captured fluid - wondered if it had a leak but was solid - so I checked out the block breather and pipework which was all good.

I've now done an oil and filter change too - dunno if a dirty old filter would have had an effect. It felt quite a lot heavier than the new

filter even after draining it for 20 minutes.